Foster Business Library


Business Ethics


Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.
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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • Conference Board Business Knowledge Research:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, under List of All Business Databases, at the bottom of the list of Business Databases. This searchable database of full-text research reports, published by the Conference Board, is focused on major issues in business and economics. For a 37-page PDF cumulative index to this database, click here.

    See their 21 reports on the topic Ethics & Compliance.

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under List of All Business Databases.   The Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research; go to Business for three major business sources:   the Encyclopedia of American Industries (4th ed., 2005), the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2001), and the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2nd ed., 2002).

    See Business Ethics, in the Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics.

  • Social Sciences Citation Index:   Included in the folder Articles--Citations & Abstracts Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. This database "is a multidisciplinary index, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. It "provides access to current information and retrospective data from 1956 forward."

    A search in this database for Business Ethics produced over 1,100 references, from a wide variety of sources.

  • JSTOR:   This database may be found under Electronic Journals, which may be found by going to Reference Tools in the left menu, under Find It. JSTOR is a subject searchable index of 360 journals, with full-text backfiles of scholarly journals, some of which date back to the 1800's. Among the collections of scholarly journals on this site are ones for Business and for Economics, encompassing over seventy journals.

    A search for Business Ethics produced over 38,000 articles.

    Web resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

  • 100 Best Corporate Citizens:   This annual listing, from the Business Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility Report, is based on a rating of a thousand companies and how well they benefit shareholders, communities, minorities and women, employees, the environment, non-U.S. stakeholders, and customers, looking as well at company lawsuits, regulatory problems, pollution emissions, charitable contributions, staff diversity counts, union relations, employee benefits, awards, etc.

  • Business Ethics Resources on the World Wide Web:  This site contains links to about several dozen sources of information, part of a larger web site on applied ethics, maintained Professor Chris McDonald at Saint Mary's University, in Halifax, New Brunswich, Canada. See also this site's Topics & Issues in the area of business ethics.

  • CasePlace.Org:   "CasePlace.org is designed for business school faculty – to facilitate new curriculum development and new connections among faculty with aligned interests. But the site is free and open to students, executive educators, and anyone interested in learning more about social and environmental issues in business and in connecting with others who share these interests." As an example, see their cases on Business Ethics.

  • Corporate Crime Reporter:   Failures in the area of business ethics are highlighted in this comprehensive site, which offers web highlights from a more extensive weekly print newsletter, published for the past nineteen years in Washington, D.C.

  • Corporate Ethics:   This Special Report section, from the Washington Post, is devoted to corporate ethical misdeeds and is updated regularly, with links to news articles, other special reports, timelines, primers, etc. See the related Corporate Scandal Primer. Free registration may be required to access this site and popup ads may be the price for free access.

  • Council of Better Business Bureaus Business Ethics:   "Today's North American BBB system is the pre-eminent force for marketplace ethics, operating a range of programs and services to promote ethical business conduct. These programs include voluntary standards and codes of practice, dispute resolution processes, and information and education programs that touch millions of consumers and businesses each year." See their Business Ethics Tips.

  • The Ethics Officer Association:  Trade and professional organizations are often excellent sources of information about a topic, with online publications, links to research and other offerings. The Ethics Officer Association is a professional association of over 700 managers of corporate ethics and compliance programs. The EOA is a non-profit, non-consulting association dedicated to promoting ethical business practices. See their External Links for outside resources in the area of business ethics. See also their list of about 1,000 Member Companies, companies with ethics officers.

  • Institute of Business Ethics:   The Institute of Business Ethics is based in the United Kingdom and "was established in 1986 to encourage high standards of corporate and business behaviour and the sharing of best practice." The institute publishes books and reports on business ethics. See its Codes of Conduct and Links.

  • Scandal, Inc. (CNN Money):   This CNN Money site brings together in one location a host of stories about failures in the area of business ethics, corporate governance, accounting and more, along with a timeline of the more notorious recent abuses.

  • Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse:   When business ethics are breached, litigation is often the outcome. The Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, based at Stanford University Law School, provides detailed information relating to the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation. The clearinghouse maintains an index of filings by more than 1,900 issuers that have been named in federal class action securities fraud lawsuits since passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The clearinghouse also contains copies of more than 2000 complaints, briefs, filings, and other litigation-related materials filed in these cases, along with articles, papers, etc.

  • Starting Points in Business Ethics:   The Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia offers this short collection of books and periodicals in the area of business ethics. See also their Five Questions That Corporate Directors Should Ask.

  • U.S. Public Opinion on Business:   This survey, conducted by The Roper Center, polled Americans about their opinions of the honesty and ethical standards of the business world as well as among business leaders.

  • Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Business Ethics.

    Finally, see this list of related sites, from the International Association for Business and Society:

    Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

    The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

  • The Blackwell encyclopedic dictionary of business ethics.
    Arranged alphabetically by topic from Accounting Ethics to Worker Safety, with an extensive index at the back of this 700-page book. Each of about 300 topics in business ethics is explained in a page or two, with a bibliography at the end of every topic. Interestingly, this volume in the twelve-volume Blackwell encyclopedia of management is the thickest.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD30.15 .B455 1995, v. 11.

  • The encyclopedia of management.
    This one-volume covers 348 management topics, arranged alphabetically from Activity-Based Costing to Zero-Sum Game. See the five-page essay on Ethics in business, starting on page 281.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD30.15 .E49 2000.

  • The AMA management handbook.
    This thick one-volume handbook comprises 16 sections on important areas of management, written by expert practitioners. See Managing ethics in the corporation, section one, pages 1-32 to 1-35.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD31 .A418 1994.

  • Business: the ultimate resource.
    This 2,200-page single volume is "designed to offer a wide range of insights, information, and practical guidance on every aspect of management" via 2.5 million words of text from 200 contributors, with 700 illustrations and 150 maps, in seven major sections including best practice, a management library, business thinkers and management giants, a business dictionary, a world business almanac, and a guide to business sources. See Business ethics, starting on page 231.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD38.15 .B878 2002.

  • Business ethics: a reference handbook.
    Over 400 pages of information about business ethics and their application to consumers, advertising, corporations, employees, the environment; also includes information about codes of ethics, a business ethics glossary, and relevant cases, statutes and agencies.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .D54 1998
    (also in Foster Business General Stacks, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .D54 1998)

  • Encyclopedia of business ethics and society.
    This five-volume reference work includes 900 essays by scholars, arranged alphabetically by topic, on all aspects of business ethics.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .E53 2008.

  • Eighty exemplary ethics statements.
    This small paperback provides ethics statements for 80 corporations including such companies as Boeing, Hewlett Packard, Starbucks and Tom's of Maine. Appendices at the end of the volume provide indexes to values statements, codes of ethics, a values index, and an index by industry.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .M876 1998.

  • Human resources management and development handbook.
    This oversized 1,400-page handbook covers all aspects of human resources and is aimed at human resources managers and practitioners, with long essays on each topic and references for further reading. See Ethics training, pages 977 to 985.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5549.5 .M3 .H85 1994.

  • A financial history of modern U.S. corporate scandals: from Enron to reform.
    This major reference work covers the stock market bubble and Enron, full disclosure and accountants, corporate governance, and recovery and reform.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HV6769 .M37 2006.

  • Global corruption report.
    This annual publication, published by Transparency International, usually focuses, each year, on a theme, such as corruption and health in the 2006 issue, with reports on this issue in many countries in part one. Part two consists of country reports from nations with corruption problems, with over forty countries included in the 2006 issue (including the U.S.).
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: JF1081 .G56 2006.

    Foster Business Library Books:

    The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

    To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

    If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

    The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

    A keyword search for the term Business Ethics retrieved a list of over 500 records throughout the UW Libraries; modifying this search to limit to the Foster Business Library produced a list of over 250 records.

    Examples of titles in the Foster Business Library, from the search above, include:

    Some subject headings for books on the topic of Business Ethics are listed below; just click on a subject heading to launch a search.

    Another way to locate books useful for your research is to go to the shelves in the Foster Business Library General Stacks and browse among the books clustered around relevant call numbers. For instance, about five shelves of books on Business Ethics may be found in the Foster Business Library General Stacks, starting with the call number HF5387.

    Foster Business Library Periodicals:

    Foster Business Library Periodical Articles:

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    This database includes among its publications Business and Professional Ethics Journal (citations and abstracts only), Business Ethics Quarterly (citations and abstracts only) and the Journal of Business Ethics (full text and page image), along with a number of other ethics journals in criminal justice, law, medicine and religion. This database includes a total of 167 publications with Business Ethics in the title. Many other journals, of course, offer articles about business ethics.

    As an example, a search in this database for Ford and Firestone produced a list of 3,300 articles, searching in all databases.

    Using Topic Guide, it's also possible to search in this database by such subjects as Business Ethics (over 12,000 articles), Professional Ethics (also over 12,000 articles), and Conflicts of Interest (over 16,000 articles). These subject terms are also associated with narrowing terms; for instance, for Business Ethics, there are over 100 narrowing terms, from Accounting Procedures to White Collar Crime.

    Examples of pertinent articles:

    Help:
    26 September 2000; updated 30 April 2008.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu